


The End (The Beginning)

by Thunderstorm30



Series: One by one they bite the dust [2]
Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Camping, Disasters, End of the World, Gen, Mystery, Post-Apocalypse, References to Drugs, Survival, The End
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 09:57:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19972156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thunderstorm30/pseuds/Thunderstorm30
Summary: We had heard rumors, from the many groups we’d found ourselves passing through time to time. Rumors of what caused ‘The End’.They called them the Reds.





	The End (The Beginning)

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings, new readers and old, this is basically a prequel to 'Captured', while also explaining the whereabouts of Matt and Edd. Eventually we'll be meeting Tord and our favourite duo, Pau and Pat!

They’d called it ‘The End’.

The end of an era, more like.  
The end of all that everyone had ever known, and the beginning of something much bigger in scale.

The news, in the short time it had stayed on, had live streamed it. Civilians screaming as the sky turned red and the ground opened up, the world seemed to be covered in a thin layer of red dust that rose from the great cracks in the ground. Houses in ruins and office blocks pummeled into dust, that was all we knew for the months that followed. The destruction seemed to go on forever, the corpses were a constant sight. I suppose it was all we could be thankful for, that we weren't just another pair of cold eyes staring out from the dark.

We quickly found how harsh the world was without the comfort of walls to hold us, the gentle cradle of a bed was something forgotten, lost to the wind.

Once, in our trek through the waste land we saw a tree, standing tall and far above. It's dark silhouette jutted out from the red landscape, a remnant from the once calm and lush hills that had made up our world. It hurt, but it almost felt like hope. I’m not sure, it was odd to feel anything more than hungry or tired for those first few months.

We had heard rumors, from the many groups we’d found ourselves passing through time to time. Rumors of what caused ‘The End’.

They called them the Reds, people dressed from head to toe in the same color as the dust, they blended in with everything around them. They had been seen driving in machines far above any simple car that had existed before ‘The End’, in groups of 40 to 50 at a time. It was said the machines floated off the ground, they patrolled through certain areas and as soon as they had finished they rose far into the sky and above the clouds.

There had also been rumors of a tower, two glass spirals wrapped around a massive black spike that jutted out of the ground. The spirals continued up and through the clouds. 

It had been just Matt and I for the past few days. When ‘The End’ had first occurred Tom had disappeared, almost into thin air. We couldn't find him in the rubble, and by the end of the second day we realized we couldn't stay, so we left. The storm had been closing in and we were running out of supplies, there was nothing left. And with it, any chance of seeing Tom again. We’d picked up many different companions over the past few months, but they all left. Our most recent companions, two mysterious men named Pat and Pau, had left for a bigger settlement on the outer regions of the world.

Night was falling over the landscape, if we didn't settle and light a fire soon we would surely be made prey of the creatures that roamed the desert at night. Matt and I had an encounter with them about two weeks after ‘The End’. They were large hulking beasts, covered in thick black fur and with eyes glowing a radioactive green. I was reminded of the incident with Eduardo’s satellite every time I knocked one of them over the head and got a glimpse of its big green eyes, staring straight through me.

Unfortunately, they didn't make for safe food, when cut open they immediately rotted. But, if the corpse was left alone the next morning it would be gone. Long ago I’d stopped questioning the things that happened here, the laws of the land had changed and with it everything anyone had ever known.

We’d found ourselves a makeshift shelter beneath two great rocks that, despite the destruction ‘The End’ had caused, remained stable as they lent against each other. Combined the great boulders created a small secluded nook were we could stay for the night. Matt and I threw a particularly large tarp over the top of the boulders and found ourselves setting up camp inside of the makeshift shelter. There was a slight hole in the top of the tarp, just enough for any smoke from our campfire to escape. 

The night was a void, the moon had disappeared since ‘The End’, and no star in the sky was strong enough to break through the thick cloud cover above. It was unbearably cold, if the beasts didn't kill you first, the cold of the void would surely freeze you to death.

So the campfire was a necessary risk, just another part of survival of this new world. Usually the cover of night was enough to disguise the spiral of smoke that rose from the hole in our shelter, it had never given us away before.

So why now?

__________________________________________________________________

I woke up to a cloudy sky above me, my sleeping bag chilly from the early morning dew that frosted its outside and the tips of my hair. I looked over to Matt, and then took a moment to realize what was missing. The tarp, our bags, and all the logs in our campfire.  
“Hey Edd.” Matt rolled over to look at me.  
“Yeah Matt?” I started to get up, taking a moment to brush all the red dust of my sleeping bag. At least they’d left the bag the sleeping bag goes in when rolled up.  
“Where's our stuff?” Matt looked around, half his torso still covered up by the sleeping bag, almost like he expected the missing items to jump out from behind one of the boulders.  
“Someone must have taken it” I simply shrugged at him as I violently shoved my sleeping bag into its case, the stubborn bag didn't want to give in.  
“What do then? We’ll freeze to death if we don’t have shelter, and what am I going to do without a mirror!” unfortunately, even a world ending event had not even slightly muffled Matt’s insatiable craving to admire himself. I hunched, sighing dramatically as I threw the bag over my shoulder.  
"Well at least you can use the occasional puddle to preen, I've been surviving on diet bacon flavored cola! And now i don't even have that!" I was tired, all our stuff was gone, and Matt was getting on my nerves. But, of course, Matt just pouted and looked at me with his big puppy eyes.  
"Pretty please Edd? Can we get a new mirror?" Matt had left his sleeping bag scrunched and partially inside out, covered in the red dust as it lay in a big heap. Someone who treated their sleeping bag like that didn't deserve a mirror. But, we did need to head to the nearest civilization as quickly as possible, and luckily whoever the thieves were had been at least respectful, any money I had hiding in my pockets or hidden in the bottom of my shoe had been left alone. I suppose we could rent a bed for the night and see if we could find any work. And so, glaring at Matt and his absolute mess of a sleeping bag, we headed west towards our only hope. 

The Drug capital of this death world.  
Domus mea tarn, the house of clowns.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! If you did, please leave a comment and suport your local fanfic writers, its not like we're getting payed ;-;


End file.
